The Church of St Hywyn lies at the edge of the beach at Aberdaron, which is situated at the tip of the Llyn Peninsula in North-West Wales. It is a parish church dating from the 12th century and is known as the Cathedral of Llyn.
The origins of the church are as a clas settlement [a Celtic monastic settlement] from the Dark Ages of the 5th to the 7th centuries. The clas was founded by St Hywyn, an early Welsh Saint. The settlement rose in importance after 1190 when Bardsey Island, the “Island of 20,000 Saints”, was declared a place of pilgrimage by the Papacy. The writer Simon Jenkins notes that a visit here equated to a single pilgrimage to Rome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Hywyn%27s_Church,_Aberdaron
“There is an island there is no going to but in a small boat the way the saints went.”
Pilgrimages by R S Thomas
St Hywyn’s church is the last stopping point for pilgrims before crossing to Bardsey Island.
“It is Bardsey that the pilgrims set out to reach on their long walk through North-West Wales, following the chain of pilgrim churches, holy wells and pilgrim stones set up as waymarkers along the route.
“A Simplified Life” by Verena Schiller , a hermit nun who, for twenty five years, lived in an isolated cabin looking out over Bardsey Island.
In St Hywyn’s there are two ancient, carved gravestones, originating from the late fifth or early sixth centuries. They have Latin inscriptions, one of which tells of the burial of ‘Veracius, priest; and a multitude of brethren’. The other is of ‘Senecus, priest’.
Pilgrims visiting the church leave messages written on stones:
As you enter the church there is a poem by R S Thomas inscribed on slate:
R. S. Thomas [1913 -2000] was born in Cardiff , Wales. In 1936, he was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in Wales. From 1967 to 1978 he was vicar of St Hywyn’s Church.
He learnt the Welsh language from the age of 30, too late in life, he said, to be able to write poetry in it. But the 1960’s saw him working in a predominantly Welsh-speaking community and he later wrote two prose works in Welsh. In 1964 he won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
His influence as a poet had a considerable impact on spirituality, to the extent that on the centenary of his birth, the Archbishop of Wales, who had known the poet personally, paid tribute to him:
R. S. Thomas continues to articulate through his poetry questions that are inscribed on the heart of most Christian pilgrims, in their search for meaning and truth. We search for God and feel Him near at hand, only then to blink and find Him gone. This poetry persuades us that we are not alone in this experience of faith – the poet has been there before us.
Further information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._S._Thomas
Welcome to My World 
It looks like such a beautiful place to go on a pilgrimage, thank you for the tour, Elisabeth. xx
My pleasure, Ally. I would have loved to do the full pilgrimage but had to be content with driving there.
You have captured all these scenes beautifully, Isabella. And such an interesting video about R. S. Thomas.
Thank you, Sue. I just loved the poem when I saw it in the church, so I did some more research on R S Thomas. That’s how I came across the video.
Such lovely photos with a sense of finding peace here and thank you for all the history, really interesting.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the tour of The Church of St Hywyn.
Beautiful blue sky and sea. What a fabulous day!
It was a lovely day with lots of sunshine.
My pleasure. Thank you, Amy.
Ein prachtvoller Ort. Herzlichen Dank fürs Mitnehmen. Ich habe es sehr schön empfunden.
Bisous. Ernst
Danke, Ernst, für deine sehr nette Nachricht. Ganz liebe Grüße.
Thank you, Ernst, for your very nice message. Very best wishes.
I’ve never seen the grey and boring weather on your pictures. All the time pictures are bright and coloruful. The sky and ocean compliment each other and make the place airy and sunny. Awesome!
Thank you, Alexander. I love sunny days with blue skies, but I’ve got plenty of overcast images too. They’re just not as nice.
Thank you, Alexander. That’s very nice of you. I don’t generally post the boring images. I went out last week and the skies were grey and heavy. I took over a hundred photos but not one was good enough to use, which was disappointing. Also, I use Adobe Lightroom to edit the photos that I put on WordPress, and often add extra saturation and vibrance to give a punch to the raw images. By the way, I absolutely loved your waterfall photos. Simply stunning.
Thank you, Isabella, for visiting and generous comments. I prefer to make pictures when the weather is sunny and everything is bright and colourful. However, I like to walk around even under the rain and snow. Mostly I am trying to create the composition of the picture while shooting. Then I use to make a little adjustments in LR.
The place you live is beautiful and interesting by itself. There is a lot of history there. It is interesting to read your posts and see the pictures.
Thank you, Alexander. I like that you still go out with your camera in rain and snow. I haven’t tried that yet but it’s a really good idea. It would be interesting to try something different. Thank you, my friend.
Splendid!
✨🙏🕉🌱🌿🌳🌻💚🕊☯🐉✨
Thank you, Graham. I love your little symbols.
👍
So many incredible photos! Those and your exception stories bring mystery’s from the past into the present.
Thank you Izzy!
My pleasure, dear Eddie. Thank you so much for your kind words. Blessings.
You’re very welcome!
Beautiful photos, and a truly lovely poem.
Alison xo
Thank you, Alison. I love the poem too. I’ve been looking on Amazon for a book of R S Thomas’s poetry.
Thank you!!! Your photography is exquisite – I feel I could jump through the screen and be there with you.
Thank you so much, dear Rebecca. I wish you could be here too 💙
Sending hugs!
Exactly what I need. Thank you.
What a beautiful place. I like how the headstones face the sea. Those singed stones really rock. Th church is really lovely.
Thank you so much, Timothy. I’m so pleased you like it. It is a lovely church and with such history.
A post of fascinating history embellished with beautiful images. Thank you, Izzy.
Thank you so much, Jo, for your lovely message. It’s lovely to hear from you. Hope all is well with you both.